The present disclosure relates to a tambourine in which an activator mechanism is used to move the cymbals or "jingles" of a tambourine and thereby generate sound. A spinning tambourine is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,528 to Brick. The Brick tambourine comprises a frame having a handle integrally formed as part of the frame. The cymbals or "jingles" of the tambourine are positioned on the frame in windows in a conventional manner and extend away from the handle portion of the frame. The handle also has an aperture therein which contains a sleeve that rotates in bearings mounted within the handle. The cymbals or jingles of the Brick tambourine are activated only by a shaking motion applied in the conventional manner. The cymbals are deactivated i.e. not able to produce sound, due to centrifugal force when the tambourine is spun. Centrifugal force holds the pairs of cymbals against the frame an in contact with one another thereby preventing them from producing sound. A mechanism is not provided for striking or moving the cymbals directly by hammers or equivalent means.
The prior art United States patents also teach other tambourines and comprise the United States patents to Blumenfeld, U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,239; Bills, U.S. Pat. No. 3,994,197; Thifault, U.S. Pat. No. 3,076,372; and Santiago, Senior, U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,602.
None of these prior art references disclose a mechanism for individually striking the cymbals or "jingles" of a tambourine or moving them to contact one another to produce sound.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide such a mechanism.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel mechanism within a tambourine which is employed to move or strike the individual cymbals or any combination thereof in the tambourine by spinning or rotating the mechanism or spinning or rotating the tambourine which in turn activates the mechanism.
These and other objects have been achieved according to the present invention and will be understood more completely by reference to the appended claims, the drawings and the following disclosure.